Easy Fresh Peach Strudel with Phyllo Dough

1 box phyllo (filo) dough sheets, from grocery
¾ cup ground pecans or walnuts
4 large or 8 small fresh peaches, sliced and chopped
½ lemon, juiced
½ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 stick European butter, salted

Thaw dough, keep in box, overnight in refrigerator. Do not remove from box and plastic wrapper until ready to work with it—very fragile. As soon as dough gets dry, it becomes too brittle to work with. Peel, slice, and cut peaches into bite-sized pieces. Grind nuts finely. Add lemon juice, sugar, spices, and flour to peaches and mix together well. Slowly melt butter on low in microwave, being careful not to overheat.

Open dough, remove from plastic, count and remove 8 full sheets. Place, fully opened sheets on a very soft cloth towel and roll carefully, covering all surfaces of dough so that it will not dry in the air. Place the remainder of dough back in refrigerator. A box of phyllo will make 2-3 strudels.

Remove two sheets at a time from the towel and cover the remaining sheets. Lay the two sheets out on a parchment paper, plastic or cloth pastry board. Take a brush and work a small amount of melted butter over the top of the first two sheets, taking care to cover the edges of the pastry to keep moist. Sprinkle some of the nuts over ¾ of the surface of the top sheet. Repeat, two sheets at a time, until all 8 sheets are stacked with butter and nuts between four layers. Then pour peach mixture into center of the top layer of last pair of phyllo sheets, fanning the peaches out until the entire center of dough is covered, leaving about 2-3 inches all around with no filling. Fold the left and right ends of dough over the pastry; then roll the pastry jelly-roll style until a strudel shape is formed. Work very quickly. The dough gets soggy and brittle. Don’t worry, if it feels as though it’s falling apart, it will bake up nicely. Transfer to a metal baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Look at the dough after 30 minutes, if has already become very brown, ‘tent’ the strudel by laying a piece of aluminum foil over top surface to reduce browning. Allow to cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Shrimp with Cioppino Sauce, Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, and Tangerine Salad

Catalan fish stew or Cioppino is a wonderful dish in winter, but in this scorching Texas heat, it's a little warm for now. There is a way to create the same flavorful dish in summer, when there is an abundance of fresh tomatoes and herbs, by making a light Mediterranean sauce and serving it over pan sautéed cod, white fish, or shrimp. Pair it with rosemary roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, a butter lettuce and tangerine salad dressed with champagne vinaigrette, and light red or white wine.

Shrimp with Cioppino Sauce (Serves 2; easily increases for 8 or more)

6 Tablespoons olive oil
4 fresh garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
½ - ¾ lb. fresh peeled and deveined shrimp
2 green onions, chopped
½ cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1 can chopped Italian plum tomatoes
2 Tablespoons fresh dill
2 Tablespoons fresh fennel or ½ teaspoon fennel seed
½ cup fresh basil
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dries thyme
1 teaspoon powdered tomato bouillon
1 teaspoon grill seasoning (salt, pepper, onion, lemon)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Heat 2 Tablespoons oil in large saucepan and sauté garlic until transparent. Add green onions and sauté until transparent. Add 2 more Tablespoon of oil and sauté shrimp until almost fully cooked. Remove all from pan and allow to cool. Heat last 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, sauté fresh tomatoes, add canned tomatoes and all herbs and seasonings. Reduce until a thick sauce remains, about 15-20 minutes. Place fish or shrimp that has been sautéed with garlic and onions back into sauce and reheat. Serve with roasted potatoes, a salad, and a light red or white wine.

Close-Second Swirll Frozen Yogurt with Butter Pecan Sauce

There is a wonderful yogurt shop in Houston, Texas, called Swirll, that is dedicated providing the community with "A NEW TASTE SENSATION" experience. You walk in and find a cup size (not your own personal one, but an amount you can eat). Then, you approach these fancy little European-looking dispensers that have exotic sounding flavor labels like “pomegranate,” “green apple” and “orignal house blend.” The creamy stuff really lives up to its hyped advertising. So much so, that I tried to find something comparable when we returned to Dallas. Natsumi’s on Henderson is the closest thing to it. But, driving there and spending $4-5 for a cup of yogurt seems so je ne sas quoi ridiculous in this economy, even if you love, love, love it. So, when my son gave his Dad a yogurt maker for his birthday, we set out to create a Swirll’s new taste sensation for ourselves. I think we may have found it. It’s somewhat of a calorie indulgence, “but hey, it’s yogurt,” I tell myself. I need the calcium and a way to cope with 100+ degree end-of-summer days! You might even give up your beer and icy cocktails for this one, too.

Serves 6

1 ½ quart ice cream maker (I use a Cuisinart Classic Ice Cream Maker)
1 ¼ cups whole milk
½ cup agave nectar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 ½ cups Total Fage Greek Yogurt ( you can use 2% yogurt, but results not as creamy)
¼ cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract or other flavorings

Place milk, nectar, and sugar in bowl; combine using whisk or mixer on low speed until sugar dissolved. Stir in yogurt, heavy cream, and vanilla. Turn on ice cream maker and add to bowl and let thicken for 20-25 minutes. Top with fresh fruit (the healthy way) or butter pecan sauce (unbridled decadence).

Butter Pecan Sauce

¼ cup salted butter
½ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
¼ cup evaporated milk
1 Tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup toasted pecans

Melt butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, vinegar, and milk. Cook on medium heat until mix boils. Turn heat down and cook for 5 minutes, until thickened. Add vanilla and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add chopped pecans. Serve over ice cream, yogurt, or poached pears.

Learning on Stage

If you like to cook, you want to experiment. And if you are lucky, you find a way to get comfortable with failure. Hope and redemption lie in the acceptance of falling short of expectations you set for yourself. We had a dinner party last night where I was never really clear about how many people I had to cook for. Sometimes I thought I was cooking for sixteen and sometimes I was cooking for ten. While you might think this really matters, it didn’t seem to. I just knew it was a bunch of fun people and I wanted us to eat well. I spent a few days thinking about what to cook and what evolved was, in my mind, a Mediterranean picnic in the house. I bought trout for fourteen people, orzo makings for thirty, flatbread toppings for twenty, salad for forty, beer for two, and enough wine for the troops in Iraq. I started putting things together at 10:00 in the morning, read two chapters in my new book during a 2:00 p.m. nap, and started up again at 4:00 p.m. Our guests arrived at 6:30 with more wine and a salad bowl big enough for sixty people. I didn’t set the table thinking that we would just loll around, eating and drinking all over the house. But, it became clear when everyone filled his plate that each would seek a place at the dining room table. My husband and I scrambled to find enough chairs for twelve, the actual number coming to dinner. One of the younger guests sat in a low-slung leather chair that barely reached the top of the table; another had to sit in a wooden swivel antique office chair claimed from behind Steve’s drafting table. There were no water glasses. Hey, we had six bottles of wine and prosecco on the dining table. And by the time we were all seated, we couldn’t gesture to make a point. It was tight. My assessment of the meal, early on, was that the trout was scary to look at, but the sauce divine. The flatbread with Italian cheeses, basil, and sun-dried tomatoes—a little dry. The orzo was tasty, but could have been warmer. The salad with champagne vinaigrette was a welcome break in all of the richness of the meal. The frozen yogurt dessert with butter pecan sauce was the clear winner. But, when I put my critic back in the closet, I loved the entire meal. The conversation and laughter was generous, each guest unique in his own way. It couldn’t have been better if an azure blue Mediterranean had really been sloshing at our feet. The evening reminded me of a Cajun story where a young man tell his mother he wants to become a famous French musician. "But," his mother states emphatically, “ton francais est pas trop bon. Your French is not very good.” “That’s OK,” he says, “I can learn on stage.” And that’s what I did last night.

Tomato Chicken Orzo
(for 4)

4 chicken sausages (I used basil and parmesan sausage, but grilled/roasted chicken pieces work very well, too)
½ cup Chevre cheese
1 14oz. can of chopped Italian tomatoes
2-3 Tablespoons of fresh oregano
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
1 cup dried orzo
1-2 Tablespoon olive oil
salt & pepper

Place sausages on baking tray and roast in oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cook orzo in boiling water until done. Remove sausage from oven and slice in thin pieces. In a large skillet, heat olive oil and sauté garlic. Add sausage, tomatoes with their liquid, and fresh oregano. Cook down liquid for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add cook orzo, goat cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grilled meats, flatbread, and greens and tangerine salad.